JP2003250876A - Air cleaning method and apparatus therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an air cleaning method which enables efficient electrolytic treatments with a small size so as to accomplish air conditioning, ventilation and dehumidification by oxidizing, decomposing and removing harmful substances in the air sucked into an air cleaner 1 mounted being connected to an air conditioning apparatus to return the air back to the air conditioning apparatus, and an apparatus for air cleaning. <P>SOLUTION: The air cleaner 1 is mounted being connected to a branch duct outlet 11 of an indoor unit 10 such as the air conditioning apparatus and an aqueous solution of alkaline electrolytes such as caustic soda and saline electrolytes such as salt, potassium chloride and sodium borate are electrolyzed with an electrolytic device without a diaphragm. An alkaline electrolytic purifying germicidal solution thus generated is kept in contact with the air taken in from the indoor unit 10 such as the air conditioning apparatus to perform oxidative decomposition for removing less decomposable harmful substances such as carbon monoxide and nicotin in the air and sterilization of harmful microorganisms such as bacteria, mildews and viruses. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for decomposing and removing harmful substances in the air with alkaline electrolyzed water.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Cigarette smoke not only harms smokers but also others in the room. Not only causes of lung cancer and stomach cancer of smokers, but also sudden infant death syndrome (S
It has become clear that cigarette smoke accounts for 60% of the causes of IDS). Most conventional air purifiers are dry air purifying / deodorizing systems. Even if deodorizing / dust removing is possible, most of the most harmful carbon monoxide and nicotine among harmful components of cigarette smoke cannot be removed / cleaned. The problem has become clear.

The inventor of the present invention has filed the following patent applications regarding a method for purifying and sterilizing by electrolysis and its apparatus. B) Japanese Patent Application No. 6-228247 "Manufacturing mechanism for cleaning water" In the present invention, it was shown that weakly acidic electrolyzed water is brought into contact with room air to remove bad odors and sterilization, but it is still satisfactory. Was not.

(B) Japanese Patent Application No. 2002-169335 "Exhaust or Exhaust Smoke Deodorizing / Purifying Method and Apparatus Thereof" In this invention, alkaline electrolyzed water is brought into contact with exhaust and exhaust smoke in an absorption tower to remove the offensive odor and harmful substances. succeeded in.

[0005]

However, the conventional air purifier has a problem that most of the most harmful carbon monoxide and nicotine among the harmful components of cigarette smoke cannot be removed and cleaned.
The inventor's exhaust or flue gas deodorizing / purifying device is large in size and is not a small and efficient air purifying device that can be used by being attached to an indoor unit such as a home air conditioner / air conditioner. It was

According to the present invention, an air purifying device (1) is attached to an air conditioner / air conditioner to remove harmful substances in the inhaled air and return to the air conditioner / air conditioner to cool, heat, ventilate,
It is an object of the present invention to provide a small-sized air purification method and a device therefor capable of dehumidifying and having high electrolytic treatment efficiency.

[0007]

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention takes the following measures. (A) Electrolyzing an aqueous solution in which caustic soda as an alkaline electrolyte and sodium chloride as a neutral electrolyte are mixed, and the produced electrolyzed water is diluted and mixed with tap water to remove harmful substances in the air with purified sterilizing water. Unlike conventional weakly acidic electrolyzed water, it is alkaline electrolyzed water that is electrolyzed by adding an alkali.
However, since this electrolysis is performed in an electrolytic cell without a diaphragm, it is completely different from alkaline ionized water performed in an electrolytic cell with a diaphragm.

(B) Both or one of an alkaline electrolyte group such as caustic soda, caustic potash or sodium hypochlorite and a neutral salt electrolyte group such as sodium chloride, potassium chloride, sodium bromide, potassium bromide and sodium nitrate. Purified sterilizing water produced by electrolyzing the electrolytic aqueous solution obtained by electrolyzing at least one or a plurality of mixed groups in the group is used as it is or is diluted and mixed with tap water to remove harmful substances in the air. For example, there are combinations of caustic soda and sodium bromide, caustic potash and salt, and potassium bromide. A commercially available 12% sodium hypochlorite solution may contain 12 to 13% of sodium chloride and may be used alone.

(C) Connected to the air conditioner / air conditioner to attach the air cleaning device 1 to remove harmful substances in the inhaled air and return it to the air conditioner / air conditioner for air conditioning, ventilation, and dehumidification.

(D) The pH of the sterilizing water for washing produced by electrolyzing an aqueous solution of a neutral salt electrolyte such as sodium chloride, potassium chloride, sodium bromide, potassium bromide, etc., with an alkaline electrolyte such as caustic soda of 8 to 13 So that Further pH
When it is set to 10 to 12.3, the purification effect is further enhanced, and in particular, the action of removing and decomposing proteins and oil droplets can be enhanced. It is more desirable from the viewpoint of preventing rusting of metal products and parts.

(E) Indoor unit 10 such as an air conditioner and an air conditioner
The air purifying device 1 is attached to the branch duct outlet 11 and the harmful substances in the air sucked from the indoor unit 23 such as an air conditioner are electrolyzed by the electrolyzing device 2 to be contacted with the purified sterilizing water to be purified. . The purified sterilized water in the purified sterilized water receiving tank 7 is sent to the spray nozzle 13 by the circulation pump 8 through the purified sterilized water supply path 6 which is a circulation line, circulates, and is repeatedly contacted with the purified sterilized water to decompose and remove the purified air. Return to the branch duct inlet 12.

(F) The dirty air in the air cleaning device 1 comes into contact with the purified sterilizing water sprayed from the spray nozzle 13 to be purified and sterilized, and then to the purified sterilizing water which wets the demister 14 when passing through the demister 14. It is then purified and sterilized. This air comes into contact with the activated carbon in the activated carbon filter 15 together with the fine mist of the purified sterilizing water, the hypohalous acid remaining in the fine mist of the purified sterilizing water is decomposed at once, and the active oxygen such as the generated hydroxy radicals is generated. , Remaining airborne carbon monoxide, nicotine and other persistent persistent substances are decomposed and removed.

(G) According to the present invention, the dry non-woven fabric is used to remove the dirty air, and the non-decomposable harmful substance such as carbon monoxide and nicotine in the air is brought into contact with the non-woven fabric wet with purified sterilizing water. It decomposes and removes and kills harmful microorganisms such as bacteria, molds and viruses. The non-woven fabric 17 pulled out from the non-woven fabric roll 16 is guided into the air cleaning device 1 by the guide roller 18, and in the dust removing space 19,
When the dirty air is filtered and dust-removed by the dry non-woven fabric 17 to pass through, fine particles that cannot pass through the pores of the non-woven fabric 17 can be removed. Most of the oil mist is also collected here on the non-woven fabric. The fine particles and oil mist collected on the non-woven fabric are decomposed and removed from the non-woven fabric 17 by the strong oxidation of alkaline purified sterilizing water and the action of alkali.

After the non-woven fabric 17 is immersed in the alkaline sterilizing water receiving tank 7 by the guide roller 16, the nonwoven fabric 17 is guided from the cleaning sterilizing water receiving tank 7 to the guide roller 16 and is inverted and pulled out. The non-woven fabric 17 wet with sterilizing water can contact the dirty air again to decompose and remove harmful substances in the air. At this time, it is desirable that the guide rollers 16 are appropriately arranged so that the contact area is large enough to reach the air flow. Although spraying purified sterilizing water from the spray nozzle 13 may be omitted, it is more effective to use it together.

[0015]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described based on examples with reference to the drawings.

(Embodiment 1) FIG. 1 shows an air purifier test flow sheet of this embodiment. 1 for the electrolytic solution container 3
A 2% sodium hypochlorite solution was diluted 4 times and the salt was diluted to 0.
An aqueous electrolyte solution containing 1% is included. The purified sterilized water is sent to the electrolysis device 2 having no diaphragm by the metering pump 4 and electrolyzed, and the generated purified sterilized water is supplied to the purified sterilized water supply path 6 and the spray nozzle 13.
It is then supplied to the purified and sterilized water receiving tank 7. Tap water here 4
2 liters of purified sterilized water having a constant free residual chlorine concentration is stored. The purified sterilized water is sprayed from the spray nozzle 13 into the purified sterilized water contact space 20 through the purified sterilized water supply path 6 by the circulation pump 8.

The purified and sterilized water that has been sprayed and brought into contact with the air is circulated through the purified and sterilized water supply path 6 by the circulation pump 8 and repeatedly sprayed to purify and sterilize the air. When the air is repeatedly sprayed to purify and sterilize the air, the effective residual chlorine concentration decreases, so the electrolyzer 2 correspondingly performs electrolysis to supply new purified and sterilized water.

In this test, instead of the indoor unit 10 such as an air conditioner, an airtight container 23 having a volume of 200 liters corresponding to the indoor unit is used.
Cigarette smoker 24 (blower maximum air flow 0.8m ³ /
min, cigarette holder), stirring fan 25
Fix 5 cigarettes (Mild Seven) in the cigarette holder and burn for 6-8 minutes. After the combustion is completed, the air cleaning device 1 is started. (The Japanese electric industry standard “home air purifier” JEM1467 is applied accordingly.)

In this case, carbon monoxide (427 ppm), which is a harmful gas produced from tobacco, and acetaldehyde (1
The gas concentrations of 9 ppm), hydrogen cyanide (1.8 ppm) and ammonia (2.1 ppm) were measured with a Gastec detector tube. The numbers in parentheses are the expected gas concentrations produced when five cigarettes are sucked and burned in a volume of 200 liters. The air volume of the propeller fan 9 of the air purifier 1 is 2 m3 / mi
Since it is n, the harmful gas concentration is the airtight container 23 compatible with the indoor unit.
And the inside of the air cleaning device 1 were almost uniform. The gas concentration measurement was performed with the inlet gas detection pipe 26 only at the beginning and after the operation started with the outlet gas detection pipe 27.

In this example, only the demister 14 is attached,
The activated carbon filter 15 is not attached. A comparative test was performed on the weakly acidic electrolyzed water that was conventionally used and the alkaline electrolyzed water of the present invention. The free residual chlorine concentration was adjusted to 20 ppm and tested. The results are shown in Table 1.
For comparison, a test of showering 100 ppm of sodium hypochlorite solution instead of electrolysis was also performed, and the results are shown in Table 2. The sodium hypochlorite solution had a high concentration of 100 ppm, but the reduction rate of harmful gas components was only 1/10 of the alkaline electrolyzed water of the present invention.

[0021]

[Table 1]

[Table 2]

(Embodiment 2) FIG. 2 shows a test flow sheet of the air cleaning apparatus of this embodiment. As in Example 1, the electrolyte aqueous solution container 3 contains an electrolyte aqueous solution prepared by diluting a 12% sodium hypochlorite solution four times and adding 0.1% of sodium chloride. Cigarette smoke was also tested under the same conditions as in Example 1.

In the air cleaning device 1, the dirty air is brought into contact with the alkaline purified sterilizing water and the weakly acidic electrolyzed water sprayed from the spray nozzle 13, and the demister 14 is brought into contact with the wet purified sterilizing water. It is brought into contact with the activated carbon filter 15 together with the mist, and the catalytic action of the activated carbon causes the hypohalous acid remaining in the fine mist of the purified sterilizing water to decompose at once, and the remaining carbon monoxide in the air, nicotine, etc. hardly decomposed. Decomposes and removes harmful substances. 2 in the alkaline electrolytic cleaning sterilizing water of the present invention
Even at 0 ppm, far superior results are shown in a short time. The results are shown in Table 3.

[0024]

[Table 3]

(Embodiment 3) FIG. 3 shows a test flow sheet of the air cleaning apparatus of this embodiment. As in Examples 1 and 2, the electrolyte aqueous solution container 3 contains an electrolyte aqueous solution prepared by diluting a 12% sodium hypochlorite solution four times and adding 0.1% of sodium chloride. Cigarette smoke was also tested under the same conditions as in Examples 1 and 2.

The non-woven fabric 17 drawn out from the non-woven fabric roll 16 is guided into the air cleaning device 1 by the guide roller 18, and in the dust removing space 19, the air contaminated by the dry non-woven fabric 17 is filtered and removed to pass the non-woven fabric. After immersing 17 in the purified sterilized water receiving tank 7 by the guide roller 16, it is inverted and drawn out, and in the purified sterilized water contact space 20, the non-woven fabric 12 wet with purified sterilized water is brought into contact with dirty air again to be in the air. Decomposes and removes harmful substances. The results are shown in Table 4. Table 5 shows the results of using this method together with the activated carbon filter 15 of Example 2.

[0027]

[Table 4]

[Table 5]

[0028]

Since the present invention is constructed as described above, it has the following effects.

(A) According to the invention of claim 1, an aqueous solution in which caustic soda as an alkaline electrolyte and salt as a neutral electrolyte are mixed is electrolyzed and the generated electrolyzed water is used as it is, or tap water or various kinds of water is used. Purified sterilized water can be produced by diluting and mixing with the water used for the purpose. It was found that by adding salt to an alkaline aqueous solution and electrolyzing, it is possible to prepare purified sterilizing water more than electrolyzed water in neutral to weakly acidic even at high pH, and it can be used as an air cleaning method.

On the acidic side, it is very effective for cleaning protein-based dirt that undergoes coagulation and denaturation. Since it is possible to generate electrolyzed water with high sterilizing and detergency even on the alkaline side, it is effective for air pollutants such as oil and mist.

(B) According to the second aspect of the present invention, the electrolyzed water produced by the electrolysis by the combination of bromine ion and chlorine ion produces hypohalous acid even in the alkaline region and is stably present. Since a strong oxidative action occurs due to active oxygen such as hydroxy radicals, a strong purification and sterilizing power can be exhibited.

(C) According to the invention of claim 3, by connecting to the air conditioner / air conditioner and attaching the air cleaning device (1), harmful substances in the sucked air are removed and returned to the air conditioner / air conditioner. It is now possible to easily perform cooling and heating with clean air, ventilation, and dehumidification at low cost.

(D) According to the invention of claim 4, an alkaline electrolyte such as caustic soda is mixed with an aqueous solution of a neutral salt electrolyte such as sodium chloride, potassium chloride, sodium bromide, potassium bromide and electrolyzed in the electrolysis device 2. When the pH of the generated purified sterilized water is adjusted to 8 to 13, it is effective for purification of cigarette smoke such as oily mist stains, carbon monoxide, nicotine, hydrogen cyanide, formalin, and acetaldehyde, and sick house. It can also be widely used for killing harmful microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi and viruses.

(E) According to the invention of claim 5, since the air purifying device of the present invention is small and compact, it can be easily attached to an indoor unit such as an air conditioner or an air conditioner which is commercially available. If the air purifying device 1 is attached by connecting to the branch duct outlet 11 of the indoor unit 10, the alkaline purified sterilizing water produced by electrolyzing the harmful substances in the air sucked from the indoor unit 10 such as the air conditioner by the electrolysis device 2 After purifying and sterilizing by applying an oxidative decomposition action with, the clean air is returned from the branch duct inlet 12 to the indoor unit 10 such as an air conditioner or an air conditioner to purify and sterilize the indoor air while cooling, heating, and ventilation.
It is now possible to dehumidify.

(F) According to the invention of claim 6, the dirty air in the air cleaning device 1 is brought into contact with the alkaline purified sterilizing water sprayed from the spray nozzle 13, and the demister 14 is brought into contact with the wet purified sterilizing water. , And a fine mist of purified water for sterilization and activated carbon filter 15
By contacting with carbon dioxide, the hypohalous acid remaining in the fine mist of purified sterilizing water is decomposed at once by the catalytic action of activated carbon, and carbon monoxide and nicotine in the air remaining so far are hardly decomposed. It has become possible to oxidize, decompose and remove toxic substances.

(G) According to the invention of claim 7, the non-woven fabric 17 drawn out from the non-woven fabric roll 16 is guided into the air cleaning device 1 by the guide roller 18, and the dust removing space 19 is soiled by the dry non-woven fabric 17. The air can be filtered and dust removed. The non-woven fabric 17 is immersed in the purified sterilized water receiving tank 7 by the guide roller 16 so that dust, pollen, oil mist and the like adhering to the non-woven fabric 17 can be washed out and removed into the purified sterilized water receiving tank 7. The non-woven fabric 17 is inverted and pulled out, and the non-woven fabric 12 wet with the purified and sterilized water is brought into contact with the dirty air again in the cleaning and sterilizing water contact space 20 to decompose and remove harmful substances in the air, which is very efficient. .

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a test flow sheet diagram of the air purifier used in Example 1.

FIG. 2 is a test flow sheet diagram of the air purifier used in Example 2.

FIG. 3 is a test flow sheet diagram of the air purifier used in Example 3;

FIG. 4 is a test flow sheet diagram of an air purifying apparatus incorporating the activated carbon filter used in Example 3.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view (cross-sectional view) of the air cleaning device 1 connected and incorporated in a branch duct of an indoor unit of this air conditioner.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Air purifier 2 Electrolysis device 3 Electrolyte solution container 4 metering pump 5 tap water 6 Purified sterilized water supply route 7 Purified sterilized water receiving tank 8 circulation pumps 9 propeller fan 10 Indoor units such as air conditioners 11 Branch duct exit 12 Branch duct entrance 13 spray nozzles 14 Demister 15 Activated carbon filter 16 Purification and sterilization water circulation route 17 Dust removal space 18 Purification / sterilization water contact space 19 Non-woven roll 20 non-woven fabric 21 Guide roller 22 Take-up roller 23 Airtight container for indoor unit 24 cigarette smoker 25 stirring fan 26 Inlet gas detector tube 27 Outlet gas detector tube 28 Overflow outlet

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification code FI theme code (reference) F24F 1/00 F24F 7/00 A 7/00 1/00 371Z F term (reference) 3L051 BB01 BC10 4C080 AA07 BB02 BB05 CC01 HH03 KK03 KK08 MM01 QQ03 QQ17 4D061 DA10 DB07 DB08 EA02 EB14 ED12 ED13

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. An electrolytic aqueous solution in which caustic soda and salt are mixed is electrolyzed in an electrolyzer (2), and the generated alkaline electrolyzed water is brought into contact with air to oxidize and decompose harmful substances in the air.
An air cleaning method characterized by removal. 2. A group of alkaline electrolytes such as caustic soda, caustic potash or sodium hypochlorite and salt, potassium chloride,
An electrolytic aqueous solution obtained by electrolyzing an electrolytic aqueous solution obtained by mixing at least one or both of the neutral salt electrolyte groups such as sodium bromide, potassium bromide, sodium nitrate, etc., in either or both groups. The air cleaning method according to claim 1, wherein the generated alkaline purified sterilized water is brought into contact with air to oxidize and decompose harmful substances in the air. 3. An air purifier (1) is attached to an air conditioner / air conditioner to oxidize, decompose and remove harmful substances in the inhaled air and return to the air conditioner / air conditioner for air conditioning, ventilation, and dehumidification. The air cleaning method according to claim 1 or 2, which is characterized. 4. The pH of purified sterilized water produced by mixing an alkaline electrolyte such as caustic soda with an aqueous solution of a neutral salt electrolyte such as sodium chloride, potassium chloride, sodium bromide, potassium bromide and electrolyzing it in the electrolysis device (2). 4. The air cleaning method according to claim 1, wherein the air purification method is 8 to 13. 5. An indoor unit (10) such as an air conditioner or an air conditioner.
The air purifier (1) was attached to the outlet (11) of the branch duct, and harmful substances in the air sucked from the indoor unit (10) such as an air conditioner were electrolyzed by the electrolyzer (2) to be generated. Spray alkaline purified water with a spray nozzle (1
Sprayed in 3) and brought into contact with this purified sterilizing water to give an oxidative decomposition action to purify and sterilize, and the purified sterilized water received in the purified sterilized water receiving tank (7) is applied to the spray nozzle (13) by the circulation pump (8). Purified sterilized water supply route (6) which is a circulation line
Repeatedly sent through the water to bring it into contact with sterilizing water for oxidative decomposition.
After purifying and sterilizing this clean air, the branch duct inlet (1
An air purifying device characterized by returning 2) to an indoor unit (10) such as an air conditioner or an air conditioner. 6. The air purifier (1) in which dirty air is brought into contact with alkaline purified sterilized water sprayed from a spray nozzle (12), and the demister (14) is brought into contact with wet purified sterilized water, and further purified and sterilized. It is brought into contact with an activated carbon filter (15) together with a fine mist of water, and the catalytic action of the activated carbon causes the hypohalous acid remaining in the fine mist of the purified sterilizing water to decompose at once and the remaining monoxide in the air. The air cleaning apparatus according to claim 5, wherein oxidative decomposition / decomposition removal is performed on toxic substances such as carbon and nicotine, which are difficult to decompose. 7. A non-woven fabric (17) drawn out from a non-woven fabric roll (16) is guided by a guide roller (18) into an air cleaning device (1), and in a dust removing space (19), a dry non-woven fabric (17). The uncleaned air is filtered and removed to pass therethrough, and the nonwoven fabric (17) is immersed in the purified sterilized water receiving tank (7) by the guide roller (16) and then inverted and pulled out to contact the purified sterilized water contact space. (2
In (0), the non-woven fabric (12) wet with purified sterilizing water is brought into contact with dirty air again to decompose and remove harmful substances in the air.